


Puppy Love

by flawedamythyst



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Dogs, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 19:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11320467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flawedamythyst/pseuds/flawedamythyst
Summary: Bucky hadn’t been sure about going to Dogfest, but Steve had been so unbelievably enthusiastic that Bucky hadn’t had the heart to dig his heels in.Bucky and Clint's dogs introduce them to each other.For Vicki_isitt on Twitter. Thanks to Trills, Heidi, Luna and everyone else who helped me brainstorm.





	Puppy Love

Bucky hadn’t been sure about going to Dogfest, but Steve had been so unbelievably enthusiastic that Bucky hadn’t had the heart to dig his heels in. Which was kinda the story of his life, when you got down to it. It was certainly how he’d ended up with a dog in the first place, because Steve had read a couple of articles about therapy dogs and decided that getting Bucky a dog was going to solve all his problems after getting invalided out of the Army down one arm and up an annoying amount of PTSD.

Not that she hadn’t helped, but Bucky wasn’t about to admit that to Steve. It’d only go to his head.

D was pulling at her leash before they even got inside the park, vibrating with excitement at the sight of so many other dogs. Bucky kept a firm grip on her, feeling his shoulders hunch over at the size of the crowd, and wished that the dogs had all left their owners at home for this one.

“They’ve got dog-diving!” said Steve, looking through the leaflet he’d picked up. “Buck, we’ve gotta see that.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “If you want to see a dog jump into some water, we can go to the park and watch D jump in the fountain any day.”

“Maybe she’s been practicing for this,” said Steve, grinning at him.

“No,” said Bucky. “She’s way too young and excitable for competitions or any of that shit.” D darted across his path as if to prove it, making him swear as he skipped out of the way of the leash.

“Next year, then,” said Steve. Bucky glared at him to express his opinion of that. Steve just grinned at him.

They wandered around the event for a few hours, watching the agility trials for a bit, then taking D to a training workshop where she just about learnt to jump through a hoop on command. After that they trailed around some of the stalls, discussing just how much crap D needed. Bucky managed to talk Steve out of getting D a bandana with the stars and stripes on it, then lost the fight over a squeaky toy in the shape of a hotdog.

The place had filled up as time had passed and Bucky was starting to feel seriously on edge, his hand clutching D’s leash while he glowered at anyone who came close through his sunglasses. His shoulders were clenched tight against the idea that anyone in this crowd could attack him from behind and he’d have no idea until there was a knife between his shoulder blades.

He forced himself to take a deep breath. C’mon, he thought he was past this crap.

There was a loud shriek and he flinched, jerking around to see an over-excited child. Steve glanced at him with a worried frown.

D jumped up to rest her paws on Bucky’s thigh, panting up at him and giving him concerned look.

“I’m okay, girl,” he said, crouching down so that he could stroke her head, then giving in as she pushed forward and just wrapping his arm around her neck, holding her close. “I’m okay,” he said again, wishing he could believe it.

“Hey,” said Steve. “How about I go get us coffee?” He nodded at a gap between a stall and a trailer. “Wait there for me so I can find you again?”

It was a fairly blatant offer to let Bucky cower in a corner, behind what passed for cover here, but Bucky wasn’t too proud to take it. He retreated between the stalls with D, set his back to the trailer and took a breath. 

He was tucked out of the way of the crowds but still had a good vantage point to watch them, and he had something solid against his back. He crouched back down so that D could press close, nosing at his neck, and rubbed his hand down her back.

He was okay, he just needed a moment. And D deserved to have a bit of a fuss made of her right now anyway. “You’re a good girl,” he told her. “Good girl.”

He stayed there for a few minutes, then sat back, letting D go. She gave him a careful look that made him think, not for the first time, that she was a lot more in tune with his emotions than she got credit for.

She gave his face a sloppy lick then got distracted by an interesting smell underneath the trailer, so she must have decided Bucky was now together enough for her to investigate their surroundings. Bucky rested back against the trailer and watched her, letting the anxiety bleed out of him.

“Lucky!” called someone, and he turned to look before his brain registered that it was a letter off his name. “Lucky! Get back here!”

A yellow mutt with one eye bounded between the stall and the trailer with its leash trailing behind him and gave Bucky a tongue-lolling happy look. D turned away from whatever smell she’d found and gave the new dog an enthusiastic greeting that involved slightly too much sniffing each other’s butts for Bucky’s tastes.

“Lucky!” said a breathless guy, running through the crowd. “Jesus, Lucky!” He drew to a halt next to the trailer and grabbed up the dog’s leash, then gave Bucky an eye-roll. “I’m so sorry, I swear he’s better trained than that.”

Lucky glanced up at his owner, then went back to ignoring him in favour of D.

“It’s cool,” said Bucky, standing up so he could talk to the guy properly. “Sometimes they just get their own ideas, right?”

“Right,” said the guy. He was wearing a bright purple t-shirt, his hair was a mess and he had a band aid on his cheek, but none of that detracted from the fact that he was unbelievably hot. Bucky blinked at him, speechless for a moment as he realised just how blue his eyes were and how much his shoulders were stretching out his t-shirt.

D came to his rescue again, losing interest in Lucky and nudging over to greet his owner instead. The guy dropped down to stroke her ears. “Hello, you’re beautiful, aren’t you?” He glanced up at Bucky. “German Shepherd?”

Bucky cleared his throat. “Shiloh Shepherd. She’s called D.”

“D,” said the guy, and she wagged her tail at the mention of her name. “That’s a good name, isn’t it? Yes, it is, good girl.” 

She vibrated with joy. Bucky thought he might know how she felt. If he had that guy’s hands stroking over him, he’d probably be ecstatic as well.

“It’s short for Dog,” he admitted, which earned him a laugh.

“Dude, my dog’s called Lucky, I’m hardly going to judge,” said the guy, then he finally tore his eyes away from D long enough to glance up at Bucky. “Sorry, I should probably introduce myself to you first, I kinda get distracted by dogs.”

“I think you’re in the right place then,” said Bucky, glancing back out at the crowds of people and dogs wandering past.

The guy gave D one last stroke then let her go back to Lucky and stood up. “Yeah, true,” he said. He scrubbed at the back of his head. “I’m Clint, by the way. As soon as Lucky’s done making friends, I’ll get out of your way.”

“Bucky,” said Bucky, holding out his hand. “And don’t worry about it. This whole day is meant to be for the dogs, right? If Lucky and D want to hang out, we may as well let them.”

And if that meant he had to hang out with Lucky’s hot owner, then that was a cross Bucky would just have to bear.

Clint’s grin lit his face up. “Oh sure, for the dogs, right?”

There was a beat as they both just looked at each other. Bucky felt a tingle of anticipation run through him at the look in Clint’s eyes, because it seemed like he might be in with a chance here.

Man, he really wanted to be in with a chance.

“Here you go, Buck,” said Steve, and Bucky realised he’d been so focused on Clint that he hadn’t even noticed Steve coming back.

Clint took one look at Steve and his six foot two of rippling muscles, and took a step back away from Bucky. “Uh, hi,” he said as Bucky took the coffee Steve was offering him.

“Hi,” said Steve, with an amused note that meant he’d seen exactly how Bucky had been looking at Clint. “I’m Bucky’s _friend_ , Steve.”

There was entirely too much emphasis on the word friend. Bucky resisted the urge to sink into the earth with embarrassment and just fixed Steve with a glare instead.

“Uh, hey,” said Clint. “I’m Clint. My dog decided he wanted to meet D and kinda got away from me.”

Steve glanced at Bucky, who gave him a look that he hoped summed up _don’t you fucking dare ruin this for me, can’t you see how fucking hot this guy is?_ From the amusement in Steve’s eyes, he had a feeling he’d got his message across.

“Hard to fault his logic, D is well worth meeting,” said Steve. He glanced at Bucky. “Hey, I got a missed call from Tony while I was at the coffee stand, I’m gonna find somewhere quiet and call him back, okay?” He glanced at Clint. “Tony’s my boyfriend,” he explained, entirely unnecessarily.

Bucky wanted to knock his head against the trailer wall. He settled for taking a sip of coffee in what he hoped was a casual manner.

“Oh cool,” said Clint, then blinked and went faintly pink, “I mean, uh,” he glanced at Bucky, “I was gonna take Lucky over to the Hay Bale Race next, do you think, uh, D would like to come?”

“Sure,” said Bucky, glancing down at where the two dogs were still all over each other. “Seems kinda mean to separate them at this point. If you don’t mind me tagging along, of course.”

Clint gave him a half-shrug and a grin. “That was kinda the point, actually.”

“I’ll come find you there in a bit then,” said Steve, gave Bucky one last shit-eating grin, and headed off.

Clint sent Bucky a hesitant smile. “Okay then?”

“Oh yeah,” said Bucky, tugging on D’s leash to get her attention. “Let’s go.”

They headed back out into the crowd, the dogs tangling their leashes together as they trotted back and forth, making sure that Bucky and Clint had to walk so close together that they were practically shoulder to shoulder. Oh man, Bucky was definitely going to owe D a shitload of treats for this one.


End file.
